Post guiding silver platter

As is typical after guiding, the species that were difficult to find have served themselves up on a silver plater in the following days….😂

 A male Three-toed Woodpecker has showed exceptionally well in Maridalen in a small area of flooded forest with dead trees well away from the species normal areas and the exact area we checked unsuccesfully on Saturday for Black Woodpecker (and had no other ‘peckers either). And Black ‘pecker which was our most striking miss at the weekend has of course also shown well….

 Pygmy Owls have just been waiting for me on roadside trees and two in a day was so noteworthy that it required a comment on eBird (our local reviewer is a meticulous young man😉).

 A visit to the Hazel Grouse saw me heading straight for where we had the male on Saturday and what do you know - he was in exactly the same tree and I only used 10 minutes from leaving the car to see him rather than nearly 2 hours. He was high up in an alder tree but I was able to clamber up a slope and see him nearly at eye level for a long period of time.

 Two different Marsh Tits still in Maridalen maintain the hope of the species establishing itself although they are not a pair and one of them is the (mostly) silent bird which always is hanging with Willow Tits and which best case has an identity crisis and worst case may be a hybrid. The other bird loves to call and is either on its own (although earlier there were two vocal birds together) or with Blue Tits.

 Jack and I visited Owl Road last night in glorious positions - a cloudless starry night sky, -16C, no wind and even a tiny slither of a moon. Three Tengmalm’s Owls meant a 200% increase on 9 days earlier but we had no other owls (it was the same date last year when I showed Jack his very firstGGO).

 The sun has been shining but temperatures remain a long way south of zero so early spring migrants are still to arrive but from the middle of next week we are forecast to have temperatures above zero and some rain. This will probably be all that is needed for the first geese, Snow Buntings, Skylarks or Starlings to show up if there are suddenly snow free flecks on the fields.

only three toes

the rings on this tree suggest that a Three-toed has been in this area quite a while...

Moose have also showed well but were absent at the weekend

Pygmy Owl in the snow

I attempted some flight shots and nearly succeeded in a sharp shot

my Hazel Grouse (jerpe) photos were nothing special but I am happy with the videos which have him singing and eating snow

singing

owling on Owl Road

and Pygmy Owling in Maridalen with the bird on top of the highest spruce

I then had a very nice photo shoot with him or perhaps her

and a Robin (rødstrupe) in the snow

and these little beauties are still giving of themselves

Mid Jan

After 3 very cold days but with only a small amount of snow we then had a day with LOTS of snow on Tuesday and Wednesday whilst temperatures rose to +/- zero. Thursday was cold again although at only -5C was a relative joy to be out in but today, Friday, the forecast is for the mercury to rise over zero and lots of RAIN. Welcome to icy pavements and roads and hell on earth…

This week I have mostly been looking for snipes, rails and owls and succeeding to a good extent. Jack Snipe, Water Rail and Pygmy Owl have shown well, Common Snipe has been seen briefly but a Great Grey Owl in Maridalen has only been heard about via via but if the record is genuine then both myself and a number of others would appear to have been very close to it whilst being oblivious to its presence. Hopefully it is genuine and is refound although I so no evidence of rodents so cannot see that it will hang around one particular area for long.

I have spent a lot of time trying to film Jack Snipe feeding but that has proven very difficult and merits its own post.

A trip to Huk, Bygdøy revealed nothing unexpected except for a female Pintail feeding in the rock pools which rather surprisingly is my first record here. Three different female (but no male) Pintails have been seen in Oslo this winter – one at Østensjøvannet and upto two at Bestumkilen/Vækerø. In the last couple of weeks though only a single bird has been reported at Vækerø so whether the Huk bird was one of the other two or another bird is difficult to say.

Maridalen on Wednesday after all the snow but before the rain

the Pygmy Owl (spruveugle) has become more reliable again. Here it looks as though it is searching the ground for mice but otherwise it clearly had its eyes on birds at the feeding station

one of upto three Water Rails (vannrikse) wintering in Oslo

the open water that attracts Water Rails and snipe also often attracts Robins (rødstrupe) and Wrens

the min cruise ferry from Kiel arriving in Oslo on Thursday morning as seen from Huk. Purple Sandpipers were on the rocks and a few Velvet Scoter and Eider were diving for food. The female Pintail can be seen swimming left

the female Pintail (stjertand) feeding in the rock pools

one of six Purple Sandpipers (fjæreplytt)

the Pygmy Owl in Maridalen on Thursday. It is always easier to find it when it perches on top of a tree. Just after I took the picture it vanished but I then suddenly heard an explosion of noise from a flock of Long-tailed Tits that I had previously not been aware of so I assume it went for one of them

Long-tailed Tit (stjertmeis)

The sound of the small flock. They were still very excited a couple of minutes after they exploded into life

and my continued "hunt" for a video of one of these feeding will get its own post sometime soon